Grantham Town won a seven-goal thriller against Peterborough Sports Elite.

Peterborough were the first team on the scoresheet. After the Grantham defence had dealt with an early corner, the ball came out to Harry Maslen whose crisp shot from the edge of the box took a deflection to beat Dave Willumsen in the Grantham goal.

Town came back well, however, and started to put together some strong passing moves. Their positive play paid dividends when Louis Cross slammed home a loose ball in the box after 20 minutes.

Grantham’s positive, progressive play continued and a multi-pass move, starting with from keeper Willumsen to right back Taylor Redman and finishing with a headed goal by Cross from Sean Bray-Smith’s cross, gave Grantham the lead.

Peterborough dug in well though and, in addition to limiting the number of further chances to Grantham, also looked dangerous themselves, particularly from corners and free-kicks.

The game remained tight and competitive but burst into life again in the final period of the game. Quick thinking by Charlie Rigby allowed him to find space from a throw-in and race into the box to extend Grantham’s lead to 3-1.

Peterborough again responded positively to this set-back and reduced the deficit to 3-2 after Shay Western bravely headed home after a shot had rebounded off the bar.

As Peterborough pushed further players forward in search of an equaliser, Grantham started to break into the available spaces. After one such break, good work by Sam Etherington and Charlie Rigby on the edge of the Peterborough box set up Flynn Slater to finish smartly into the far corner for Grantham’s fourth goal.

Peterborough would still not give in, however, and their late free kick was unluckily deflected past his own keeper by Rigby to make the final score 4-3.

The game was both competitive and sportingly-played throughout, with some great skill and performances from both teams, and made it three wins out of three for the young Gingerbreads, having already won 5-2 at Corby Town in their season opener and 4-2 at home to Mansfield Town last weekend.